Category: Hype Check

HYPE CHECK: Marina and the Diamonds Tries to Prove She Isn’t ‘Just Another Quirky British Girl’

March 16th, 2010 | File Under: Hype Check | One comment

By Arye Dworken

The Artist and Their Forthcoming Release: Marina and the Diamonds, The Family Jewels (due out 5/25 on Atlantic)

What’s Been Said: “Whereas Lady GaGa and Katy Perry’s ’80s throwback looks seem ironic and snarky, it’s obvious that Marina’s is for real. Her cruise-ship glamour pitches her as a gladiatorial Joan Collins infused with a healthy dose of Dolly Parton homebody charm. Her hectic cover of Gwen Stefani’s ‘What You Waiting For?’ opens a window on to the Kate Bush comparisons that have been heaped on the London-based singer—her luminous vocals swoop and soar with blissful eccentricity while her arms flamboyantly tick-tock around an imaginary clock face.” – NME

“Among British music critics’ top picks for the year ahead (she came second on the BBC Sound of 2010 poll), Marina seems determined to set her own pop agenda. She already has a larger-than-life quality, coming on like a drama queen using her personal neuroses as a prism through which to view the world. Self-references abound, as if the ingénue has already mentally established her own third-person brand.” – Telegraph

“In pop terms Marina Diamandis is rather unusual. Not because she lacks the genuine weirdness and fearless invention of Micachu (although she does), or the songwriting ability of Florence Welch (although she does). No. She’s strange because she appears to have based her entire singing style on the odd rhythms and insane lurches of Sparks’ ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both Of Us’.” – BBC

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK: Salem Slurs Their Way Through a Sluggish Set At Glasslands, Leaves Us Feeling Kinda Creeped Out

January 6th, 2010 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | 17 comments

[Photos from John Holland's Flickr account]

The Artist and Their Latest Single: Salem, Frost/Legend 7-inch (Audraglint)

What’s Been Said:

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HYPE CHECK: Washed Out Goes From Depressing to Slightly Danceable In the Span of One Strange Santos Party House Show

October 21st, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | 4 comments

Words and Photos by Andrew Parks

The Artist and Their Latest Release: Washed Out, Life of Leisure (Mexican Summer)

What’s Been Said: “Leave the slippery musicology behind. ‘Feel It All Around’ is a deliciously unbalanced track, starting into the groove right off the bat and unexpectedly fading out at the end. The unusual compositional style is tailor-made to entice you to spin it again, and [Ernest] Greene’s little gem does little to convince you otherwise.” — Pitchfork (Best New Music)

“Impossibly gorgeous pop that mixes up woozy synthesizers, droney shoegaze textures and funky, sometimes danceable beats. [Ernest] Greene has only released one 12-inch and a cassette on small independent labels but he’s already getting solid buzz in the music blogosphere, thanks to killer tunes like ‘You’ll See It,’ which evokes French synth-pop group M83 and ‘Feel It All Around,’ which features soaring, angelic vocal chorales.” — Rolling Stone

“Not sure if this genre is ‘emerging’ or if it is only just becoming ‘properly monetized’ now that there is a ‘demand for it.’ Do yall prefer ‘Neon Indian’ or ‘Memory Cassette’ or some other chillwave band? I feel like Washed Out might be my favourite chill wave artist, so far, but Neon Indian might have the ’strongest brand’/'highest possibility of becoming a legacy indie artist.’” — Hipster Runoff

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK: If Mayer Hawthorne’s Brooklyn Debut Is To Be Believed, Maybe All We Need Is Love After All…And A Slamming Argyle Sweater

October 2nd, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | 2 comments

Words and Photos by Andrew Parks

The Artist and Their Latest Album: Mayer Hawthorne, A Strange Arrangement (Stones Throw)

What’s Been Said: “Mr. Hawthorne is deadly serious. He’s an able singer, a gifted mimic and an arranger of astonishing precision. Working largely alone in his Los Angeles studio, he’s pieced together some stunning simulacra—not just in lyric and sound, which are unremittingly loyal to the classic soul that serves as his template, but also in tone. Most songs here emerge through fog, slightly distant and slightly obscured.” — The New York Times

“Hawthorne (né Andrew Cohen) is trapped in a time-stop circa 1976, and his immaculate debut is replica music, constructed and buffed to a high sheen. Drawing on Holland-Dozier- Holland’s crisp, 180-second soul classics, the Michigan-born Hawthorne gorgeously apes the Temptations on ‘I Wish It Would Rain’ and ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out.’ There’s hardly an original thought here, but with arrangements so expertly composed, who’s complaining?” — SPIN

“They call it neo-soul these days, and for once, the label is exactly right. Neo-soul is exactly what Cohen does. And he does it in stunning style. His debut album as Mayer Hawthorne, A Strange Arrangement, is a wonderful, joyous delight from start to finish, managing to be both a nostalgic-sounding soul facsimile and a fresh urban retro dance listen all in one package.” — Allmusic.com

“It’s Tuesday: You are feeling tranquil and a little bit loose. You’re looking for a song that reminds you of 1950s soul on Sundays appropriate for cooking waffles with strawberries with the fam (or friends you consider family.) Even if that never really happened. The perfect song? Mayer Hawthorne—’Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out.’” — Justin Timberlake

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK: Here’s Your Woodstock, Ang Lee! Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros Bring Tent Revival Vibe To Music Hall of Williamsburg

September 3rd, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | Leave A Comment

Words by Arye Dworken

The Artist and Their Latest Album: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Up From Below (Community)

What’s Been Said: “Ask anyone who’s held hands with a stranger or danced barefoot in the front row at an Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros gig: The 10-piece folk-rock ensemble’s shows are more like shamanistic tent revivals than rock concerts.” — Rolling Stone

“Even the Babylonians probably wouldn’t have grokked singer Alex Ebert’s math theory: ‘0 is magnetic, and 4 + 3 might equal 1 or 2.5, depending on the magnitude of 0.’ Lucky for Ebert, the absolute value of his psychedelic folk pop is much easier to calculate. Filled out by musicians, including trumpet and conga players, the 13 songs on the troupe’s effervescent debut Up From Below add up to |a|wesome.” — Wired

“Alex Ebert and his band hark back to a carefree age of patchouli and bell-bottoms on their debut. This is intoxicating psych-indie for heady days in unbroken sunshine.” — Guardian UK

“There is also something unmistakably now about Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. If you threw Kings of Leon, Scissor Sisters and Arcade Fire into a blender, this—with an obligatory shot of wheatgrass—is exactly what you would get in your musical glass.” — The Independent

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK: M.I.A. What? Janelle Monae Who? Ebony Bones Makes Her Bid For 2009’s Avant-Pop Crown At Bowery Ballroom Show

July 30th, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | Leave A Comment

Words and Photos by Andrew Parks

The Artist and Her Latest Album: Ebony Bones, Bones of My Bones (available as a Japanese import; U.S. version due through an undetermined label)

What’s Been Said: “With a truly wild wardrobe, a rocking band, and a raw sound somewhere in between M.I.A. and Talking Heads (just listen for yourself—Harry Potter fans should beware that MySpace profile is slightly NSFW), Ebony’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. Just don’t go blind staring at the slightly seizure-inducing video for ‘Don’t Fart on My Heart,’ which looks more suited for the Tate Modern than MTV.” — Entertainment Weekly

“Ebony Bones is the difference between Steve Coogan and Jason Alexander if Steve Coogan was a band and Jason Alexander was a band. This is why ESG are from the US and wear sweatpants and Ebony Bones is from the UK and she wears clown make up and gigantic couture chain link necklaces.” — FADER

“…pretty damn thrilling, a skronking ten or so piece band backing the woman herself (dressed like something out of The Fifth Element, possibly), lashing us with chaotic slews of er… dunno, what do you call this? DIY funk oddness will probably do me.” — Drowned In Sound

“An Internet favorite, Ms Bones is a hardworking independent British artist whose attention to detail and daring, uncompromising image matches her colorful, genre-smashing sounds. A cultural sponge, absorbing the multi-faceted world of modern day London, Ebony has graced the pages of Dazed and Confused and even wowed the socks off of Timbaland.” — Clash

“Perhaps thee most chattered about act in London right now, Miss Ebony Bones is a one of a kind producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and all-round femme fatale who mixes up post-punk stylings, with pure girl sass. Enlisting her crew of rhythm section and backing vocalists, the Ebony Bones live experience is one part punk rock show, one part Mardi Gras carnival parade.” — Time Out

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK: Dirty Projectors Unload Melisma on a Crowd of Screaming, Weeping (Yes, Weeping) Dudes

July 22nd, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | Leave A Comment

Words and Photos by Aaron Richter

Latest Album: Bitte Orca (Domino)

What’s Been Said: “Much ink will likely be spilled on 2009 being the year that Brooklyn’s experimental class finally went ‘pop,’ and—with apologies to Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear—it’d be hard to find a better thesis statement.” — The A.V. Club

“A similar sense of accidental discovery governs the band’s fifth disc—jagged riffs, distortion and fragrant folk melodies ride curveball beats that evoke TV on the Radio or doo-wop or Afro pop. Add Dave Longstreth’s and Amber Coffman’s chamber-chorale-on-Red Bull vocals and you have ample art-rock zaniness. It’s at once attention-deficient and micromanaged, exhilarating and aggravating.” — Rolling Stone

“Lead single ‘Stillness Is the Move,’ in particular, deserves a permanent place in the barbecue playlists of those who like their summertime jams  a little—well, a lot—weird.” — Entertainment Weekly

“At a time when even fans note that much indie rock is essentially conservative, juggling a handful of retro signifiers—Pixies meet Pavement, Spacemen 3 meet Kraftwerk, and so on—Dirty Projectors’ music defies easy categorization and is anything but safe.” — The New York Times

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK (THE UK EDITION): What the Hell Just Happened? Boy Crisis, Apparently.

July 16th, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | 4 comments

[Photos/Text by Andrew Parks]

The Artist and Their Current Single: Boy Crisis, “Dressed to Digress” 7-inch

What’s Been Said: “RIGHT from its title to its plippy ending, we just love everything about Boy Crisis. ‘Dressed To Digress’ (apart from being our new motto in life) is a fabulous electro ramble, a funky, pulsating, urgent slice of New York cool.” — City Life

“It has a definite G.A.Y. edge to it with its strong disco flavour, so much so it’s a bit like a camped up Kylie track, yes. Kylie camped up. The lyrics include ‘You can do me up like Woodrow Wilson’ and ‘You can do me like Bruce Springsteen’. Now I think he is talking to a woman, hence ‘I’m just a tiger and looking for a tigress’ but the sound of the track coupled with the look of the band makes you think otherwise and also I’m not totally hip with current terms on the gay scene, so it may actually be me who is confused and not Boy Crisis.” — Contactmusic.com

“Good fun, fizzing funk-ridden efforts like ‘1981,’ debut single ‘L’Homme’ and ‘Dressed To Digress’ make for killer listening, their juddering basslines, smart playful lyrics and falsetto combining beautifully with the fivesome’s charmingly geeky, jerky dance-offs—but it’s all tragically lost on tonight’s crowd. You’ve got to hand it to the boys, though: they soldier on admirably, laughing and joking between songs, grinning from ear to ear throughout and putting their all into a show that falls tragically flat reception-wise…These people are fools. Boy Crisis will be huge.” — The Fly

“Although drawn to the Brooklyn breeding ground for buzz bands, Boy Crisis actually hail from Wesleyan University—whose alumni include cosmic crusaders MGMT and Amazing Baby. However, this quintent have chosen the sleazy electro path, and worked out a way to make desperate future sex sounds danceable and enduring. They say: “a computer having sex with a beautiful bird or something”. We say: next year’s brightest hopes.” — NME

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK: Phoenix Makes a Strong Case For Indie Pop Crown At Sold-Out Terminal 5 Show

June 23rd, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | 2 comments

[Text/Photos by Andrew Parks]

The Artist and Their Current Album: Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote)

What’s Been Said: “Though the album trips lightly from slinky roller-skate jams (‘Fences’) to near Brit-rocky rave-ups (‘Lasso’), the underlying vibe is both retro and somehow outside of time—like a memory made  sweeter than the real thing it recalls.” — Entertainment Weekly, A- rating

“Its unflappable sonic sheen gives Wolfgang some winsome 80s nostalgia, but smart modern touches—a constant near-Auto-Tune vocal effect, Justice-lite keyboard stabs on ‘1901′—ensure its of-the-moment-ness…They’re pleasure-pushers, filling tunes with riffs, phrases, and beats a five-year-old could love.” — Pitchfork, Best New Music

“The group has polished its ’60s-rock-revivalist sound to near perfection, but keeps expanding its aural palette, experimenting with layered rhythms and sonic textures. Opener ‘Lisztomania’ captures the group at its peak: Sprightly rock rhythms and shimmering guitar licks intertwine beautifully with Thomas Mars’ lead vocals, which ruminate on musical fame throughout raucous verses and spare, keyboard-plinking choruses.” — Billboard

“Phoenix are what architects should dance to. Sleek minimalism. Clean lines. A propensity to wear white. Emotionally neutral but texturally rich—they’re the sound of Richard Rogers’ utopian future. If Brian Eno wanted to do Music For Airports Two, he’d just tape a Phoenix album with a bunch of gate announcements over it and spend the time he saved thinking up more policy proposals for the Lib Dems.” — NME

Our Take:

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HYPE CHECK (NORTHSIDE EDITION): Woods

June 14th, 2009 | File Under: Hype Check, Reviews | 2 comments

Words and Photos by Aaron Richter

The Band: Woods

The Album: Songs of Shame (Woodsist)

What’s Been Said: “Woods can evoke any number of their lo-fi ancestors, from early Guided by Voices to the murkier depths of the Siltbreeze or Flying Nun back catalogs, but they’re still able to retain their own immediately recognizable off-kilter character.” — Pitchfork, Best New Music

“To say that Woods sound like a lot of bands before them isn’t exactly exposing the man behind the curtain, as they don’t try to hide behind much except arguably their lo-fi production and halfway-feigned ruralism. Woods’s surprisingly wide and presumably indie-literate audience must like them exactly because they are so familiar and fit so nicely into parameters set years ago, back when bands reclaiming folk and psych for a generation of alienated white kids had social and political resonance.” — Tiny Mix Tapes

“These guys are hype darlings with some backbone, content to quietly perfect their craft and let the rest work itself out.” — The Decibel Tolls

“Charmingly dilapidated and strangely poignant.” — us

Our Take:

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